Oneida Public Library $375,872 budget vote March 5

ONEIDA >> Oneida Public Library goes to the voters in the library's special district on March 5 with a proposed budget for 2013-14 and a slate of three candidates running for three seats on the library's Board of Trustees.

Current trustees Patricia Albaugh and Robert Wilkins are seeking re-election, while Lillian White is in the running for the seat being vacated by George Miller.

On the March 5 ballot, the OPL board proposes an overall increase in the library's operating budget of 2.36 percent for a total of $375,872. Of this, the proposed library tax levy is $326,872, an increase of 2.56 percent, which is within the limits set by New York state's tax cap legislation.

"The proposed library tax on property in the city of Oneida valued at $100,000 would be about $44.55, a total increase of about $1.05 over this year's library tax," said Albaugh, the OPL board vice president.

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Of the proposed budget, $49,000 or 13 percent would come from public and private funding, individual donations and library fees. Not included in the proposed operating budget is funding for special programming and the OPL's adult literacy services, both of which depend on grants from private foundations for support.

"Staying within the tax cap was our No. 1 budget priority for our upcoming fiscal year," said Carolyn Gerakopoulos, OPL director. "However, we are facing some real concerns this year in regards to the uncertainty of future Madison County funding and Gov. Cuomo's proposal to increase the minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $8.75 in July 2013. We are carefully planning ahead for these possibilities."

"Every year the library board faces the challenge of making the operating budget as spare and cost-efficient as possible while maintaining the high level of service that we expect of our community's library," said OPL Board President Eileen Kinsella. "The proposed budget for 2013-14 is really bare bones, with the tax levy increase needed just to cover a modest 1 percent staff salary increase, the rising costs of building maintenance and items that we have no control over like employer-paid Social Security tax.

The Oneida Library Special District, established by the state Legislature and a voter referendum in 1997, has the same borders as the Oneida City School District. It covers the city of Oneida, Oneida Castle, Durhamville, Wampsville, most of Sylvan Beach and sectors of the town of Verona.

Registered voters in the Library District can cast their ballots for the budget vote and the election of officers to the board March 5, between the hours of noon and 9 p.m., in the OPL's Meeting Room, 220 Broad St., Oneida. If voters will not be in town that day, they can get an application for receiving an absentee ballot in the mail from Gerakopoulos or by calling her at the library, 363-3050.

Board Candidates

Three Oneida City residents seek to win places on the Oneida Public Library Board of Trustees: Patricia Albaugh, Lillian White and Robert Wilkins; the position is unpaid.

Albaugh, who retired from the OCSD in 2007 after 32 years of teaching sixth grade at the Oneida Castle School, is seeking her fourth consecutive five-year term on the OPL board, on which she currently serves as vice-president. She is excited about working on the board at a time when it is endeavoring to build a new library: "I am happy to be involved in such a worthy and important project that will benefit the entire OPL service area."

Bob Wilkins, who is seeking a second term. He would like to see the OPL expand its services in adult literacy tutoring and access to eBooks, particularly for people who cannot afford reading devices. Wilkins and his wife, Gloria, moved to Oneida in 1970. He retired as a school counselor in the Rome Schools in 1999 after 30 years there and then opened up his own computer technician business.

Lillian White moved from New York City to Oneida with her husband Jeffrey and their son Philip in the summer of 2009. White was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island. After attending Briarcliff College, she started her career in an accounting department at a Time Warner subsidiary. A few years later, she began working at JP Morgan Chase & Co., N.Y.C., and eventually became an executive director at the bank. After 26 years with JPMorgan Chase, she retired in order to devote herself to her family in Oneida.